...the George Crumb Trio

Music by Austrian and American Composers

On Wednesday, April 9th, I had the luck to attend a concert of the George Crumb Trio in the Alte Schmiede Wien (Old Smithy), together with the "Porgy & Bess" one of the most famous location in Vienna to listen to new music.

The Alte Schmiede has a strange atmosphere - located several stairs under the ground floor it seems to be part of the old Vienna, besieged by the Turks, haunted by the Pest, and reigned by one of the Emperors of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (though not necessary at the same time). The ceilings are low, and the lighting is rather dim, so the over-all character of this venue is either creepy or intimate.

For the concert of the George Crumb Trio I am going to write about, the latter applies. The Trio, founded in 1992, consists of Norbert Girlinger, flute, Andreas Pözlberger, cello, and Sven Birch, piano. They play their instruments as masterful as the composers write for them, all three are teachers at Bruckneruni in Linz.  On this occasion, they played music by the Austrian Composers Rudolf Jungwirth (*1955) and Michael Amann (* 1964), and paired them with two compositions by the Americans Ned Rorem (* 1923) and the name-giving George Crumb (*1929).

Rudolf Jungwirth: "Mandorla"

All four compositions had in common, that their composer were masters of instrumentation. Especially George Crumb is capable of conjuring sounds out of certain instruments that are almost impossible to trace back to its source. Rudolf Jungwirth, as well teaching at Bruckneruni, called his piece "Mandorla" and doubled the flute with a rare-heard (and seen) bass flute. According to the composer, this piece is inspired by poet Paul Celan, although this influence was not (and was maybe not intended to be) perceptible. The multi-movement work (approx. 20 minutes) featured a highly delicate sound quality, reminding me both harmonically and rhythmically of Olivier Messiaen and his chamber pieces, especially his "Quartet for the end of time", and his solo piano work "Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jesus." The use of added values by Jungwirth, and the highest and lowest register of piano played at the same time might be responsible for this impression.

Flautist Norbert Gerlinger with Bass Flute, Sven Birch, piano

Michael Amann: "Sonett 116"

In contrast to that, Michael Amanns "Sonett 116" (premiere), inspired by the Sonett 116 by Shakespeare, though without the lyrics, was sparse, discreet, and even more intimate. Amann almost never reached for the sonority or the kind of sound Jungwirth achieved, instead he managed to combine a collection of small figures that established a high-tension network of sound. Amann's and Jungwirth's compositions were not consecutive but devided by Ned Rorem's "Trio for Flute, Violoncello, and Piano" from 1960.

Michael Amann, Composer

Ned Rorem: "Trio"

Rorem's Trio in four movements (Largo misterioso - Allegro, Largo, Andante, Allegro molto) was the perfect intermission for the quaffable "Mandorla" and the fragile "Sonett 116." Playful and virtuosic, it nevertheless immersed in the spirit of the sixties. The music of this Trio is in stark contrast to his fellow composers like Elliott Carter, Morton Feldman, or La Monte Young. Rorem does not seem interested in algorithmic conceptions or minimalistic patterns but rather writes melodies and climaxes. In this sense, Rorem's music alludes to a Third Stream, though not in the way proclaimed by Gunther Schuller.

George Crumb: "Vox Balaenae"

The approach to avant-garde of Rorem is, in my opinion, similar to that of George Crumb. In his composition "Vox Balaena" (1971) he freely mixes tonal and atonal content to generate a multi-stylistic and even multi-dimensional work. Crumb depicts a submarine landscape, in which he sets the different ages of the earth into music. Starting with a "Vocalise (...for the beginning of time)", followed by a Sea Theme with five variations (five ages) it ends with "Sea-Nocturne (...for the end of time)" and reaches overt tonality. Crumb employs almost every playing technique imaginable, from "singing into the flute", prepared piano to plucking strings inside the piano. He even breaks up the limitations of the trio by using Crotales, played by the Cellist.

Cellist Andreas Pözlberger, with Crotales (left)

Crumb also calls for electric amplification and blue stage light, what was dismally omitted this time due to the limitations of the venue, and asks the players to wear masks. The masks were also omitted, but with the consent of the composer, as flautist Girlinger told me, since they were to seventy-ish. 

Crumb goes a step farther than Rorem. He not only allows tonality, he actually seeks the allusion to tonal music, like through the citation of Strauss' "Also sprach Zarathustra" in the beginning. It also occurred to me, that this music might be better watched on larger space with more distance to the musicians which are also, in part, actors. The multitude of playing techniques requires much more movements than a Quartet by Schubert, which have to be staged. The George Crumb Trio earns the credit to be not only fully aware of that but also able to perform this movements. Thus they transport this piece from the early seventies into the 21. Century, which sees completely different listening (and watching) habits. Remember, that "Vox Balaenae" is from the same time as works by other composers, who also call for "acting", e. g. Hans Werner Henze and Maurizio Kagel. To perform this piece without the dust of the seventies and dissolving the awkwardness of playing and acting at the same time seems to me the major challenge of "Vox Balaenae."

Andreas Pözlberger, Sven Birch, Norbert Girlinger (from left to right)

The Alte Schmiede and the George Crumb Trio deserves the respect for providing the audience with such a (free of charge) venue and superb performed music.

Note: All images are take by the author. They are removed immediately by request of the depicted individuals or by Alte Schmiede.

...the Symphonies of the 20th Century

A venture

I decided to make the symphonies of the 20th century the topic of my analysis class I am going to teach this semester. This is an incredible huge field but I am convinced that it must be possible to handle a topic in a given time frame regardless of its dimensions.

My students are composers, musicologists, and conductors, and were, at least till now, quite eager about my choice. The 20th century offers a vast scope of symphonies, from Shostakovich to Ives, from Maxwell Davies to Pärt, from Henze to Glass. I am really looking forward to teach this class and learn at lot about 20th century music. 

The plan is to listen to symphonies from Germany and Austria, then Russia, Ex-USSR, and Poland, then France and Switzerland, and at least the UK and USA. Unfortunately there will be no time to talk about the vast history of symphonies of the Scandinavian countries.

I post a Google Drive spreadsheet on this blog, so you may keep yourself informed about what symphonies I have already listened to. I call it the "20th century symphony project" (20SP). Sounds pretty cool, huh?

Overview

The first lecture was last Thursday. I spoke about the symphonies form german-speaking countries. At first we were listening to the music by Anton Webern, Ernst Krenek, Paul Hindemith, and Karl Amadeus Hartmann as examples of pre-World War II symphonies. Everybody was struck by the huge difference between the music of Webern and his contemporaries. Even now Webern sounds fresh and radical, compared to Hindemith, whose music sounds old school and even a bit cheesy.

Anton (von) Webern. Quelle: wikimedia

It is always surprising for me to read that Hindemith was the hero of contemporary music in Darmstadt in post-World War II Germany, at least till 1949. After that the decline of his fame was as fast as the stars of Stockhausen and Boulez rose, but none of them wrote any symphonies.

There are a couple of noteworthy symphonies after 1945. Wolfgang Fortner and Bernd Alois Zimmermann wrote one each, and there is the "Deutsche Sinfonie" by Hanns Eisler. The "Deutsche Sinfonie" might be the best example of an antiquated music, which belongs to a Museum of Music, together maybe with the works by GDR-composer Ernst Hermann Meyer. But all the aforementioned symphonies disappeared from the repertoire.

Hartmann and Henze

Undoubtedly, Karl Amadeus Hartmann and his friend and fellow Hans Werner Henze rank among the most important and prolific composers of symphonies in the german speaking countries. Although Hartmann almost fell into oblivion, his 1. Symphony "Versuch eines Requiems" on a poem by Walt Whitman, his Violin Concerto, and his composition "Miserere" can still be found in concert programs. 

Hans Werner Henze was also a companion of Stockhausen and Boulez, but after asthetic differences they went their own ways. Henze did not chose serial composition, what made him "unnütz" ("useless") in the eyes and ears of Boulez. Detested by not a few of his peers, he nevertheless advanced to be one of the most important German composers. His music is full of overtly shown expression, a trait to which he committed himself already in the 1940's. 

 

Hans Werner Henze. Quelle: wikimedia/Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F008277-0008 / Unterberg, Rolf / CC-BY-SA

His ten symphonies can be divided into five early works, the more mature 6th symphony, and four late masterworks. All of them, from the first to the last, reveal his masterful instrumentation, but not before his 6th symphony he found a individual style. The 7th symphony, his engagement with Beethoven, will be the focus of my next lecture.